Next Week, Swan Lake: Reflections on Dance and Dances - Softcover

Cohen, Selma Jeanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081956110X ISBN 13: 9780819561107

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 1982

Synopsis

An important book of essays on "dance and ideas about dance"

About this title

Review

"Cohen's stimulating, perceptive, and well-written essays both conjure up the excitement of live dance performances and record dance aesthetics with accuracy, historical perspective, clarity, persuasuion, pleasure, ease, expertise, and reliability . . . High priority acquisition for both public and academic libraries"--Choice

"The philosophers and writers on esthetics quoted by Miss Cohen, whether they are commenting on dance or other art forms, do not...always serve the needs of a universal definition for dance. It is this awareness of the need for particularizationin dance theory that makes Miss Cohen's book so refreshing."--Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times

"The issues Cohen tackles are as fundamental to the dance critic as time, space and enery are to the choreographer. How might one go about determining the 'style' of a ballet? What makes viruoso display frivolous? What, and how, does a dance represent?"--Susan Isaacs Nisbett, Dance Critics Association News

"A primer of dance aesthetics...Cohen tackles such basic issues as the nature and relationship of grace and virtuosity in dancing; the literal, expressive, and intrinsic significance of movement; and the meaning of style. She explores relevant and fascinating byways, such as the tension between the 'given' choreography and the performers transmission - and inevitable interpretation - of it to the viewer. Boldly she takes on that first, and perhaps thorniest, question concerning the most ephemeral of the arts: the very definition of 'the work.'" --Tobi Tobias, Dance Magazine

Synopsis

A discussion of grace, virtuosity, and meaning in dance and their identity in Swan Lake.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 1982
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081956110X
• ISBN 13: 9780819561107
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208